


28 Things (#2 The In Love Version)

by paintingfire



Series: 28 Things [2]
Category: X Factor RPF
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-27
Updated: 2011-11-27
Packaged: 2017-10-26 14:03:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/284121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paintingfire/pseuds/paintingfire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's Matt's birthday and he has to fill in a list for a journalist about the 28 things he misses about the X Factor.</p><p>"Maiden. It wasn't really us but it was. The real version is so much more..."</p>
            </blockquote>





	28 Things (#2 The In Love Version)

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on LJ for Matt's 28th birthday. The second of three fics flipped from the same starting point. This is the gushing one. Matt's a bit carried away, and ends up just talking to Aiden. Forgive the man, the boy makes him silly!
> 
> Disclaimer: I am a mere storyteller, a painter of words. I have no secret mind-reading powers. The characterisations of the people and portrayal of events within the following story are therefore wholly fictitious. A fairytale begins "Once upon a time" but it does not mean it really happened. Remember that and we'll all live happily ever after!

_Hi Matt, many happy returns, hope your birthday wishes come true._

 _Thanks for doing this, shouldn't take very long, just email me back the list and we'll publish it with the article at the weekend._

=+=  
 **  
The 28 Things I Miss About The X Factor by Matt Cardle**

1\. Being with Aiden all the time. He is the X Factor to me. Everything to me.

2\. The fact we were being filmed or photographed so often. I hate watching myself but I can relive favourite moments with Aiden whenever I want. Not that they're not etched into my heart already, but it just makes them so much more. Especially when we watch them back together. There is one photograph that we're not so sure about. Aiden looks stunning in it, but I feel as if the camera has stolen part of our soul. It should have been a moment just for us and I think my face gives that away.

3\. Competing with Aiden at who could be the most cute at depicting our "Bromance". He's adorable, I can't compete with what he comes out with. I cried when he said I made him cry, and I kinda want to marry him too. For real. For some reason they never used all the soundbites I gave about him. Aiden says it's because most of mine were not suitable for family viewing. I resented that and pointed out they used the toothbrush one and he said "Exactly, look at the response that got". But I was only telling the truth, he's meticulous about his oral hygiene and carries a tiny travel toothbrush and toothpaste with him at all times. I swear!

4\. Going online afterwards and reading that the fans loved our latest bromantic escapade. We hope they'd feel the same about the real romance but certain people tell us they won't. I don't care for myself but I would care if it damaged Aiden's career and he says the same about me. We're torn.

5\. Living with Aiden. I was worried that in such a hothouse atmosphere we'd end up getting on each others nerves but the opposite was true. Every day we just got closer to each other, in every way.  

6\. Watching Aiden get all embarrassed when he got compliments. He never fully believed them, always focused on the worse, but for a split second he'd allow himself to hear them and I just loved the way he'd light up before he tried to laugh them aside or make a silly face.

7\. Aiden's silly faces! He used to tease me about mine but his are in a class of their own. So many of them caught for posterity. I may just have some printed up into a book and if he decides to go all top model or singing heart-throb on me I'll whip it out and bring him back to earth, back to being just my silly boyfriend.

8\. Watching Aiden being interviewed, he's amazing. I find myself just staring at his mouth in wonder at what he's going to say next. It just makes me happy in a way I really can't describe. I just love every thought that goes through his head so literally hang on his every word.

9\. Watching Aiden eating. That mouth. The way it moves. The way it looks. Have you seen those lips? Have you felt them? I bet you've imagined what they feel like. What they could do? I don't need to imagine but I still do. Every single time. Aiden knows this of course, and totally winds me up, but I don't care. I so don't care. The powers that be kept telling me off, that it was too obvious, that people could read my mind. But it's like breathing to me, I just told them they couldn't stop me breathing so how could they stop me looking at Aiden's mouth.

10\. Hearing Aiden sing and watching him as he lets the song transport him. He is so expressive. It's not just being intense. It's him not being afraid to go there. It's when they tried to hold him back that the emotion became trapped on his face. When he sang just for me it tied me in knots. The voice alone is astounding but he, he is a bit of heaven trapped and waiting to come out. It's never too much. Not for me.

11\. Being interviewed after Aiden was voted off. Okay I wish it had never happened but oh the pleasure I got in sticking it to them and defending my man time after time. Who wouldn't love to be able to do that. I was angry, he was hurt, and I would have done anything to make him feel better so I did.

12\. Dannii. Because she really got to know us and, because we wanted it that way, supported us as a couple first, Matt and Aiden second. You wouldn't believe how much she did for us and we'll always be grateful. She didn't mind a thing. Even when our instruction to stop us snogging each other's face off on stage if I won led to her getting hit in the face. All she did was laugh, and knock our heads together afterwards. She kind of made us Maiden so we'll always be "her boys".

13\. The One Direction boys. You couldn't wish for better friends. So much fun but so understanding too. Aiden was just so funny around them I didn't even get jealous. Well maybe a tiny bit. Well maybe a slightly bigger bit. But I knew where his heart really lay. Next to mine. They were our private bodyguards in a way. Always there to distract the press or fans, or just making sure we got some privacy. We made sure we paid them back in kind. Wonder what we'll do now? Ali's volunteered but as Aiden told him "There's only so much one man and his bongos can do".

14\. Aiden getting styled for the show. He hated the outfits but I loved sitting watching them do his hair. I might have even helped on occasion. It gives you quite a feeling of achievement knowing you're responsible for making that quiff suddenly jump to attention.

15\. Waking up in the middle of the night and holding my breath until I could hear Aiden breath. Even if he was beside me I still had to know he was really there and okay. I didn't even realise I always did it until he was voted out. Then it upset me so much I could never get back to sleep again. So the next night we were together I recorded him on my phone. He still doesn't know I did that. He thinks I'm a total creeper anyway, so I don't think he'd be that surprised actually.

16\. Walking with Aiden. Anywhere. Everywhere. I just feel safe when I'm with him. Happy. Content. Where I'm meant to be. I just always want us to go on walking. Together.

17\. The hugs when we got through to the next round. That special hidden private moment wrapped up in the public display. The moment that was just us, happy and worried at the same time. Knowing that it wasn't about the show, it was all about us. So much emotion having to be conferred in a spilt second before one had to leave the other behind on the stage.

18\. Knowing that I could rely on Aiden to do the right thing, say the right thing, to make me feel okay about things like being too emotional and knowing I could do the same for him. Dannii used to call it going into our Maiden Bubble. Cut off from everything around us. We sometimes wished we could stay in it all the time. Especially during the disasters that were the Xtra Factor shows. But Aiden being there made even Konnie bearable.

19\. Finishing performing and knowing when I looked to the side of the stage Aiden would be watching me. It was the most amazing thing to have him back there for me again during the final. The camera caught me doing it a couple of times. At least after "Here With Me" I got away with it because Dermot came on from that side. I always pretended Aiden was the camera anyway as I knew he'd be trying to watch the feed as well. When he wasn't on the show I just poured myself down the lens to him, maybe got a bit over emotional but I just blamed it on feeling ill if anyone commented.

20\. Meeting celebrities so I could tell them how amazing Aiden was and how he was the star they had to look out for. I did the same with reporters. With fans. With the crew. With the studio staff. With taxi drivers. With shop assistants. Okay, with everyone I met. But he is amazing, and he will be a star. He'll be so much bigger than the X Factor and he'll do it his own way.

21\. Maiden. It wasn't really us but it was. The real version is so much more but the public version was a way for us to push the boundaries of our early relationship. Being positively encouraged by the production team maybe made us braver. I'd like to think we'd still have been so strong together from the start but they gave us a safety net. Maiden meant we could flirt in public, touch in public, be us in public. I'll always thank it and them for making me appear worthy enough for Aiden. I so am not, but miraculously he seems to think I am.

22\. Being able to both live, work and play with the person I love. Actually being made to do that, not just because we wanted to. They made us. How wonderful was that? How many people get that opportunity to spend their whole days together, often at the most being just minutes apart.

23\. The way it allowed us to grow as individuals and as a couple. Aiden always was amazing but I think his belief in himself is stronger now. I know he's even more determined to do things the way he wants, to make the music he wants. I'm the same. We don't have the excuse of being forced to do things by the show anymore, so yes, maybe we'll miss the safety net, but it's the catcher that is the most important. We're always each others catchers. We won't let the other fall, and if they slip we'll help them get back up there.

24\. Walking out on stage with Aiden. It just felt so right. I hope we'll do it again many many times. "They" don't want us to become too associated with each other musically but it needs to be. I don't want my final X Factor TV performance to be the last time I sing in public looking into Aiden's eyes. I'll take whatever bad press they throw at us. Aiden's worth it. We're worth it.

25\. The little things that were there for just an instant, but for lots of instances. Cigarette smoke kisses on a cold day. Cups of tea made with love but hurriedly drunk or pushed aside forgotten. The nod of a head or wink of an eye that meant let's get out of here. The mouthed words or little touches when we thought the camera wasn't looking. The ones where we didn't care if they were.

26\. Aiden, I miss us experiencing so many things together for the first time. I hope that we get the chance for that to continue to happen. I hope we will continue to surprise each other in the most amazing ways imaginable. I hope we continue not to surprise each other at all because we will always know each other so well.

27\. Aiden, I miss not seeing every minute of the world through your eyes. You ground me like no-one else. I was so lost when they took you away from me on the show. You know I wanted to walk, to be with you. I miss everyone you and I love telling me I had to stay and fight, to win it for Aiden. I want to win the world for you, life itself for you.

28\. Aiden, I miss every second we spent together on the X Factor. Because it made us. But I won't swap it for the future. Because we can make our future together. The X Factor was just the birth of us. The beginning, not the end. I loved you then, I love you now, I'll love you when.

=+=

 _Aiden, remember that stupid 28 Things article I was meant to write and send back to that journalist? Please find it attached._

 _It's my gift to you on my birthday. You know I would never do or say something so personal about us without checking with you first, but if you want me to, my love, I'll send it to the journalist the way it is._

 _If not I just won't bother replying, because if they don't know by now that you're the answer to all 28 they shouldn't be in the job they're in in the first place!_

 _Matt_


End file.
